Lies Lies and more Lies

Agents: "my guy has been promised to be picked at spot x if he is still on the board" I hope I can up my guys draft stock so I can keep making obscene amounts of money as a sports agent

GM's ".. we really like the crop of SG's .." We really intend to draft a PG

Draft prospect ".. I am going to surprise a lot of people.." but in reality I will limit my workouts because I am already over valued

Draft Boards: are actually selling public perception. Super agents can get their guy moved up considerably. Espn is the only board not for sale apparently.

Newspapers: Team x is apparently interested in players "y" and may show up at his door step Midnight July 1 when FA begins. me the sports writter hopes player "y" is flattered and comes our way.. also I am not sure what to write about until the draft,.... and I have a man-crush on player "y"

dumb fan: I love and am married to player "x" who just got big buz on someMockDraftSite. my life will not be complete unless we draft him. If we do not draft him I am cancelling my season tickets and our GM is a bum idiot. I am a knee jerk reaction waiting to happen. I am broke live with my parents and don't have season tickets. In fact I have not seen a game live since 2009

Smart fan: Calderon is a good PG I hope we keep him I really think he a bigger defensive liability than if we had Stephen Hawking defending us at the point of attack. However since this organization has repeatedly had the deck stacked against it - I have taken in upon myself to flood this forum with positive remarks about Calderon in the hopes that some dim witted GM reads my remarks and does a trade for Calderon that rivals Barbosa - for Turk-oh-pooh.

There is so much posturing, gamesmanship and crap floating around out there this time of year... what is real?

I feel your frustration, but I honestly doubt there is that much malicious intent. I wrote a similar post in a thread yesterday about the fact that seemingly every player projected to go at least in the top-20 is so overhyped at one time or another leading up to the draft. I think every prospect is overhyped and will have unrealistic expectations heaped on him unfairly.

In this day and age, we also have to problem about something I call "compliment proliferation", which is basically just the digital age equivalent to the "telephone game" that us older guys probably played at some point in kindergarden - one reporter tweets that player "X" looks good in a workout, then a bunch of players/reporters/agents all retweet it, then the news outlet he works for writes a minor story about it, then a bunch of other competing news outlets write bigger stories that reference the first news outlet, then some gung-ho reporter wants to outdo the rest and beat everbody else to the punch by writing some big fancy article about player "X" and how some "inside source" was impressed and is now considering him at a draft slot at least 5 spots higher than any other mock draft has him, which sends every other reporter scrambling to uncover the source to break the big story... by the end of a two-three day news cycle, the innocent reporter that sent the original tweet about player "X" looking good winds up racing around to uncover a mysterious "inside source" that is, in fact, himself.... it's just utterly asinine!

Again, I don't think there is any ill will, but rather reporters and fans all get caught up in the hype and frenzy leading up to the draft. The people I feel most sorry for is the poor kids who have to start their career with all this overblown and overhyped expectations thrust upon them by experts, fans and franchises alike. Most of these kids will be solid role player and rotation contributors to their team, with maybe two or three of them good enough to ever make an allstar team, yet there's probably at least 10-15 of them that have "best case/worst case" type comparisons comparing them to past/present allstar calibur players! I'm sorry, but that's unrealistic and unfair to the poor kid who has no control over what people are saying/writing about him. Of course, when he signs his first multi-million dollar contract, I'll have a hard time remembering that I ever felt bad for him.

Such is life. Especially in professional sports. Everything sports/celebrity related should be taken with about a kilo of salt.

The only situation you described that is somewhat ethically questionable is the one about the agents. But everyone in the game knows that agents are usually lying scum, so it shouldn't come as a surprise really.

In this day and age, we also have to problem about something I call "compliment proliferation", which is basically just the digital age equivalent to the "telephone game" that us older guys probably played at some point in kindergarden - one reporter tweets that player "X" looks good in a workout, then a bunch of players/reporters/agents all retweet it,

GREAT POST!

agree 100%

ceez wrote:

I love a good Charlz thread

Thank you

here is a fun fact ceez - until I knew your avatar was Gary Forbes I thought he was Geordi La Forge from star trek.... ayeeee I gotta lay off the Crystal Meth *cough*

They have to market their players in a competitive business. I think the agents and players not only look at how high they should be drafted, but also the fit, so chances of a second contract (definition of "I made it, mom") is more attainable.

After they've decided on the ballpark where they want to see themselves in, it's all marketing; even playing field. So naturally, they would have to choose their plan carefully; interviews, workouts, etc. I can't really blame the guys for doing it. It's business.

I also like the fact that the Raptors have hired a psychologist to read between the lines and analyze body language.

“I don’t create controversies. They’re there long before I open my mouth. I just bring them to your attention.”